PPD Until June 13: Rays at Tigers

The Tigers have the brooms and the tarps handy, as they look to sweep the 3-game series with the Rays, weather permitting. Last night the Tigers pulled off the rare feat of overcoming both a subpar performance by Justin Verlander and a Tiger Clown Show.

This afternoon manning the broom is Bad Brad Penny, who is looking to overcome a subpar performance of his own, as his 5 walks led to 5 Pittsburgh runs. He will be faced by Andy Sonnanstine, who has transitioned from the bullpen, but is yet to make it past the 5th inning of any game. That and the fact that the Rays’ bullpen has been well-used this series bodes well for Brutus’ chances to wield the broom.

On a side note, reading a Rays blog it is clear that Rays fans really, really don’t like Kelly Shoppach. Laird was a fan favorite last season by comparison. Shoppach’s failure to block Boesch from scoring was seen as the main cause of the first loss in the series, and when he was later hit by a pitch one fan said, “good, he needs to get hit with a pitch every at bat for the rest of the season.” Ouch.

Today’s Player of the Pre-Game: Alex Avila

Alex was the hero in last night’s game, and gets another RHP to jump on today. And he is not Gerald Laird or Kelly Shoppach.

16 Comments

Vince in MN

May 25, 2011 at 1:12 pm

A few days ago I was thinking that as an experiment, switching Inge (.200) and Sizemore (.200) in the lineup would be worth a try. Given their respective production I didn’t expect it would have much impact one way or the other. However, I kind of like this particualr switch. I’m not a big Kelly fan, and although he isn’t your prototypical No. 2 hitter (let’s face it, we don’t have one), at least he does hit LH. Sizemore definitely belongs at the bottom of the order, but I expect after Inge’s short demotion, he’ll be right back up there.

Mr X

May 25, 2011 at 1:19 pm

Don Kelly is winning me over. He’s looked better than Inge, Raburn, Ordonez, and Sizemore so far this year. I’d rather have him over Carlos Guillen too.

Vince in MN

May 25, 2011 at 1:32 pm

Carlos who?

Vince in MN

May 25, 2011 at 1:22 pm

Don Kelly is to Brandon Inge as Lou Gehrig is to Wally Pipp.

Coleman

May 25, 2011 at 1:37 pm

OK, we have the lead, and there is a good chance of rain, so it would be nice if Brutus weren’t taking about 2 minutes between pitches here.

In other news, Boston put up 9 already on Cleveland (of course we play Boston next).

Vince in MN

May 25, 2011 at 1:55 pm

And what were Avila and Sizemore thinking?

Coleman

May 25, 2011 at 2:01 pm

Andy Dirks made ESPN’s Top 10 plays last night. I do believe he may have just made tonight’s also.

Mr X

May 25, 2011 at 2:16 pm

I missed his catch when I was pumping water out of my yard. I’ve never seen so much rain. Looks like some more sever weather is on the way too.

Coleman

May 25, 2011 at 2:28 pm

Boston scored another touchdown, now lead Cleveland 14 – 0, beginning of the 4th quarter

Kevin in Dallas

May 25, 2011 at 3:24 pm

Any idea on how long the delay will last?

Coleman

May 25, 2011 at 3:42 pm

Beck says “looks like a night game now.” I assume that means Penny is done for the day.

Mr X

May 25, 2011 at 3:59 pm

Unfortunately, the heavy stuff has just started coming down. By the look of the radar, it might not stop raining until some time Tomorrow

David G

May 25, 2011 at 3:30 pm

This could be a while, but based on schedules I think they may try to get it in at just about any cost.

StorminNorman$

May 25, 2011 at 4:07 pm

The Twinkies lose again today (in a shutout), they’re 16 games under .500 and only 5-13 at home in Target field… apparently they also are feeling the sting of the ‘dome curse’.